One of our responsibilities for providing a safe and healthy environment for children in child care settings is to ensure access to safe drinking water.
While a major source of lead exposure in Vermont children is paint, lead in older plumbing and fixtures can add to a child’s overall lead exposure. Lead exposure poses a special risk to young children because they absorb lead into their systems more easily than adults do. Lead can slow down growth, impair development and learning, and can cause behavior problems.
To address these risks, the General Assembly recently passed legislation that requires all schools and licensed or registered child care facilities to test their drinking water for lead, and to remediate when results are found to be at or above the action level of 4 parts per billion (ppb). The Vermont Department of Health has been charged with helping child care providers with the testing process.
Some child care providers may have already tested their drinking water under current child care regulations. Because the new law requires standards for lead in drinking water testing that are different from what is required in the child care regulations, all child care providers—including those that have already tested—will need to test for lead under the standards of the new law. The child care regulations will be updated to match the new law.
Here’s what you should know:
- Your Child Development Division child care licensing technician will call you in mid-June. They will collect information about which taps you use for drinking water, cooking, food prep and preparing formula bottles, and to confirm your contact information.
- Each program will be assigned a specific week to do their water sampling. This will start in June 2019 and end December 2020. You will be informed of which week you will need to collect your samples. You’ll receive more details about how samples should be collected and returned to the lab for testing.
- If you are a child care provider located at a school, the school is responsible for testing all taps, including those used by your program. Please contact the school administrator for more information.
- The State of Vermont will cover all testing costs including the expense for returning water samples to the Vermont Department of Health Lab. The State will also reimburse for the actual costs to replace fixtures, up to a certain amount.
- Information and resources are available at healthvermont.gov/leadtest-childcares. Please dial 2-1-1 with any questions.
Thank you for your help protecting our children’s health. Safe, healthy drinking water also protects the adults who provide early care and learning in child care.
Reeva Murphy, Deputy Commissioner
Department for Children and Families